Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin

THE PRIVILEGE OF SPENDING A YEAR
SEARCHING FOR WAYS OF TALKING
ABOUT ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD
MUHAMMAD S. UMAR
Muhammad S. Umar is currently an Associate Professor of Islam in the Department of
Religion and Director of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA)
at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He has taught at Lawrence University in
Appleton, Wisconsin and Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. He was among the
first set of Global Fellows at the International Institute of the University of California, Los
Angeles in 2002–03. He earned his first degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Jos,
Nigeria, Master of Arts also in Islamic Studies at Bayero University in Kano, and his Ph.D.
in History and Literature of Religion at Northwestern University, Ill. His publications include
Islam and Colonialism: Intellectual Responses of Muslims of Northern Nigeria to British
Colonial Rule (Brill, 2005) and essays on Islam and colonialism, Islamic education and law,
Sufism and social movements. − Address: Program of African Studies, Northwestern University,
620 Library Place, Evanston Ill. 60208, USA.
My main work at Wiko focused on articulating Islamic arguments in support of pluralism,
tolerance, gender equality, democracy, human rights, individual freedom, etc. This is the
easy part. These values should not be regarded as simply Western, since they can also be
found in most if not all cultures as well. The more challenging part is how to construct
effective Islamic rebuttals against Islamic criticisms of these values. The arguments and
counter-arguments have been made from the diverse and clashing viewpoints of Muslims
who have been variously labeled “secularists”, “modernists”, “reformers”, “moderates”,
“liberals”, “salafists”, “fundamentalists”, “militants”, “extremists”, “activists”, “radicals”,
“conservatives”, “traditionalists”, or “neo-traditionalists”. These terms have increasingly
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